The China Huayang Economic and Trade Group Co. has set up a fund with a budget of US$3 billion for investments in Brazil or Brazilian companies interested in expanding to China, Brazilian financial newspaper Valor Economico reported.

The Brazil-China International Development Chamber of Commerce (CCDIBC) represents the fund created by the Huayang group in Brazil, with state and own capital, and operates as a project bank.

CCDIBC also offers consulting services to tailor proposals to Chinese requirements, prior to submission for credit analysis and guarantees from the Hong Kong-based investment fund.

Fabio Hu, president of the CCDIBC, said he expects to sign contracts later this year and mentioned some priority activities – infrastructure and logistics, construction, agribusiness, public-private partnerships (PPP), public concessions, technology, business initiatives, production of cars and electric trucks and energy (solar, wind, hydroelectric), waste treatment centres and oil and gas.

Hu told Valor Economico that the chamber will allow for more flexibility in granting financing and recalled that lending processes by the state-owned National Bank for Economic and Social Development or even Chinese banks already established in Brazil, such as the Bank of China or the Construction Bank of China, “take a long time.”

The president of the CCDIBC also recalled that the Sino-Brazilian state fund with an initial budget of US$20 billion, officially presented in São Paulo on 30 May, 2017, has yet to approve a single project.

Hu said that the candidate projects can be financed by this fund up to a maximum of 85%, and those of amounts of over US$100 million dollars have preference.